Early childhood education

The Early Childhood Education Programme within the Department of Primary Education will organise two presentations in which participants reflect on training issues in preparation for professional staff required to work in early childhood education.

The first presentation, scheduled on Wednesday, focuses on early childhood education and teacher training in Sweden.

The guest speaker is Maelis Karlsson Lohmander, from Göteborg University. She has been a director of the Early Childhood Teacher Education Programme for many years and has long experience working with student teachers and pre-school teachers at undergraduate, post-graduate and in-service education.

She is also the director of the Early Childhood Research and Development Centre at Göteborg University and a member of the board of trustees of the European Early Childhood Education Research Association. In one of her recent publications, Maelis questions the "fading" of a teaching profession in the light of reforms of early childhood teacher education in Sweden.

The second presentation on May 9 focuses on integrated services in early childhood education and the consequences for professional training. The guest speaker is Pamela Oberhümer from the State Institute of Early Childhood Research in Munich. She is currently co-ordinating a project focusing on systems of early education in Europe.

This is a follow-up study to her earlier research entitled "Working with Young Children in Europe", which looked at ECEC systems and training policies in the then 15 EU countries.

The current work focuses on the early childhood education policies and training services in the 10 'new' EU states. Ms Oberhümer has also been involved in research and development in intercultural pedagogy for many years and has published widely in these areas.

Both presentations start at 5 p.m. and are being held in Hall B2 at the Gateway Building. Further information is available from Dr Valerie Sollars, who is co-ordinating both events; e-mail: valerie.sollars@um.edu.mt